The field of the present invention concerns article diverters wherein a single lane input of articles is arranged into a multiple lane output. One such diverter is disclosed in the United States reissue patent to Seaborn 25,732, issued Feb. 23, 1965. There are other commercially available article diverters, but apparently the operating principles of all such diverters are that the diverting means requires very rapid operation and precise control to achieve a high output. Thus, in a conventional diverting mechanism having four output lanes, the diverting gate is mechanically limited in its response time if the output is at the rates herein contemplated, in the order of 180 articles per minute.